Continuing
on from where we left off with our last installment of
Classic-Horror.com's Shiverin' 6, we will now turn our attention to
children who do their devilish deeds as a group. As each of these
frightening features will attest, there's only one thing scarier than
a creepy kid and that's a whole pack of menacing minors.(read more...)

Perhaps
our shiny new century's first significant horror trend was sparked
by the cult success of a Japanese film entitled Ringu.
Its
decidedly non-conventional approach seemed to hit a new and different
horror nerve. When the Americanized remake (2002's The
Ring) became
a colossal international hita
surge of interest in East Asian horror films ensued, allowing US
audiences to sample their diverse and fascinating output. The subject
of this review, Ju-on:
The Grudge,
presents a modern ghost story that dispenses almost completely with
certain horror elements codified in the US while focusing on others
with laser like intensity. This mixture creates a film that is a
stylistic breath of fresh air that also happens to be one creepy
experience.
(read more...)

Jimmy
Sangster, whose scripts for The
Curse of Frankenstein and
Horror of Dracula
helped seal the reputation of Hammer Studios as the home of British
horror in the 1950s and 60s has passed away at the age of 83.

Born in
Wales in 1927, Sangster started his movie career aged 16 as a clapper
boy, working his way through various jobs, before ending up as
assistant director on Hammer adaptations of BBC Radio serials.

Eventually
landing the job of scripting the studio's adaption of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein, he made one significant change to the source material,
moving the emphasis in the story from the monster to the creator,
consequently giving Peter Cushing his breakthrough starring role, and
Hammer a hit movie, both in the UK and the US.(read more...)

From
1965 to 1973, Max J. Rosenberg and
Milton Subotsky's Amicus studios unleashed a string of high quality
anthology films that were inspired by the macabre morality tales
found in the pages of E.C. Comics. It's a format in which the company
would excel, as many of these features are now considered classics.
One of the studios finest portmanteau efforts is director Peter
Duffel's The House That Dripped Blood.
The film is extraordinary from start to finish thanks to its
exceptional writing, a star-studded cast, and a crew that enlivens
what is, for the most part, a stage-bound production.

The story begins as a police inspector is called in to
investigate the disappearance of Paul Henderson, an actor who had
moved into a house with a history of strange occurrences. From there
the film fractures into four tales which are related to the inspector
by the homes real estate agent. They go as follows:(read more...)

Assault
on Precinct 13
was John Carpenter's first foray into professional filmmaking, and
although today it is arguably remembered largely as an urban siege
thriller and an homage to the westerns of Howard Hawks, there is also
a nod to a classic horror film, as well some weird and ambiguous
elements that point to the direction Carpenter was to take with his
future work.
(read more...)

The mere prospect of a Nazi zombie
evokes dread filled imagery and an almost overwhelming sense of
terror. With that being said, it's rather amazing that although this
mini sub-genre has been around in one form or another since the
1940's, there are very few films within this particular niche that
have the ability to frighten an audience. In fact, many consider most
of these films (i.e. Zombie Lake, Oasis of the Zombies) to be of such
poor quality that they are difficult to sit through, let alone
admire. One exception to this generalization is director Ken
Wiederhorn's Shock Waves, a film which manages to impress on various
levels despite being straddled with a meager budget.

The premise of Shock Waves is quite basic -- a
group of tourists find themselves shipwrecked on a remote island with
a former SS officer (Peter Cushing) who hides a terrifying secret.(read more...)

With the installation of the Motion
Picture Production Code in February 1930, Hollywood, suffering from a damaged image through much of the
silents era due to off-screen star scandals and production of some
risque films, finally bowed to political pressure for increased censorship. Full enforcement of the code,
however, would not happen until 1934, when the chief censoring body,
the Hays Office, was finally given final editing authority over the
studios. Until then, many juicy gems, like Paramount's 1932 horror
classic Island of Lost Souls were able to sneak past editor's
chopping block with all the delightfully overt and lurid elements
intact.
(read more...)

Welcome
to another terror-filled edition of Classic-Horror.com's Shiverin' 6.
In this installment we will delve into one of the horror genre's most
frightening sub-genres: the killer kid flick. Since this is a rather
large category of films we've decided to dedicate two separate
features to these pictures. Part One will focus on children who act
as individual threats and part two will take a look at children
acting out as a group. Possession films will be saved for future
columns.
(read more...)

The Lance Henriksen Blogathon is this week (May 2-7) and we have a special entry -- a Masters bio for Henriksen written by Joseph Maddrey, the co-author of Not Bad for a Human, Henriksen's autobiography. Find out more about this awesome event at NotBadforaHuman.com

Lance Henriksen is a versatile character actor who's as adept
at playing strong, nurturing, heroic characters as he is at playing ruthless
psychopaths. His secret is astute
observation, empathy, and a willingness to surrender himself completely to
every role he takes - whether it's in A-list drama or Z-grade schlock.

The central thread of Edgar Allan Poe's
1841 short story Murders in the Rue Morgue is one of mystery.
Two bodies are found, so degraded that investigators can only imagine
a killer with a "grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from
humanity". Poe's novel is cerebral, focusing on analytical
observation and the calculating power of the mind. It laid the
groundwork for Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective and moved
police work into the 20th century. Robert Florey's film
adaptation however, holds no such aspirations. Here acumen is
replaced by something more visceral and focus shifts to themes of
desire, rage and revenge. This is after all the cinema, and here
emotion is king.
(read more...)